The Nice summit on preparations for the enlargement of the European Union could last as long as four days, the Belgian Prime Minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, said last night as he arrived for a meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, at Government Buildings in Dublin.
At a joint news conference with Mr Verhofstadt, the Taoiseach said he hoped the summit, scheduled to begin on December 7th, would not last that long although he admitted there were likely to be "fairly long and protracted and hopefully not too difficult discussions on the Nice Treaty".
Mr Ahern said a referendum in Ireland on the treaty had not been ruled out, although it was difficult to predict the precise outcome of the summit.
Mr Verhofstadt said: "We can expect it shall be a summit of, not two days, but as I heard it from the French Presidency, of four days." On the composition of the European Commission, the Prime Minister said there was "the same view between Ireland and Belgium on this issue", namely, that each member-state should retain its right to nominate a Commissioner.
"It is very clear that, certainly in the period of enlargement and certainly for the new candidate member-states, it is necessary that they have the opportunity and the possibility to have a mandate in this Commission because it's a good exercise for any new member-state." His feeling was that "we have seen an evolution in that direction".
Asked if the treaty of Nice would have to be put to a referendum, Mr Ahern said: "There is not certainty about that yet." The advice, insofar as people could predict the outcome of Nice, was that "we would probably require a referendum, but the final call on that cannot be made until we see the outcome of Nice". It was certainly not being ruled out at this stage.
On the issue of qualified majority voting (QMV), the Taoiseach said it was essential for the effective operation of an enlarged EU. "We are prepared to be quite forward in that, except in the one area of taxation. We are not going to move on our taxation. We have made that absolutely clear. We don't agree with taxation being a part of QMV.
"That is a matter for domestic governments to deal with, within their own fiscal and monetary policies, and it's certainly not something we would contemplate in the foreseeable future. Certainly there will be no question of it at Nice."
Asked about the danger that the role and influence of small states like Ireland could be diluted at Nice, Mr Ahern said he did not think it would "come down to that".
He expected they would be difficult negotiations but hoped Mr Verhofstadt was wrong in suggesting they would last four days. He recognised there would have to be certain changes in the operation of an enlarged EU in return for the larger countries giving up their second Commissioner.